


More Than Pen Pals?

by Lance_buddy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Pen Pals, Sequel, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:41:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23421844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lance_buddy/pseuds/Lance_buddy
Summary: Lance isn't sure Keith can still be his pen pal when he lives ten minutes away, but sometimes feelings are better when they're written down.Sequel to Pen Pals Aren't Real Friends
Relationships: Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Matt Holt/Shiro
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I would suggest reading Pen Pals Aren't Real Friends first before reading this, but if you don't want to I won't stop you, but some things probably won't make much sense. 
> 
> I felt bad for technically not making Klance actually happen so... perhaps this time?

**August 29 8:41 A.M.**

**Lance:** Today I learned that it is illegal to put mail in someone’s mailbox if you aren’t a mail carrier…

**Keith:** ...yeah

**Keith:** please tell me you didn’t get arrested and hunk didn’t have to bail you out

**Lance:** noooooooo i would’ve called matt for that

**Lance:** the mailman and i had a nice conversation on your front porch a few minutes ago

**Keith:** i thought we werent sending letters anymore

**Lance:** if you’re patient and read the letter i left taped to your front door then you’ll understand

**Lance:** Patience is a virtue. One i dont possess, but im sure you do

**Keith:** Dont you have class in like fifteen minutes

**Lance:** i’m not going to be late. Just read it when you get home. Please :3

**Keith:** :3

August 28

Keef,

So, I know I said that we should stop sending letters, and I fully support that decision, but also, I really like writing letters to you. Like, hasn’t it felt kinda weird that we’ve gone so long without writing anything because we went for two years writing letters to each other regularly? I’ll admit that writing things out helped me sort my thoughts out, and it also felt good to write things that I couldn’t bring myself to say. Do you really think if we met in different circumstances and that whole feelings thing came up without the letters that I would’ve done anything other than ruin our friendship because I stopped talking to you rather than writing out that I had a problem and then stopped talking to you? At least I told you I had a problem. I would never have said that in person. That’s not healthy. Oof, that’s so not healthy. But like, is it? You wouldn’t say a lot of the things you’ve written out loud either, so it’s not that weird. At least we’re saying them right?

Also I’d like to say that I’ve respected Shiro’s wishes of letting everyone settle in and letting the first week of classes go by, so now I’m going to be at your place all the time, and he can’t stop me. Mostly because I know we’re not official or anything, but we’re something and I don’t want to lose that. Tell me why I’m about to just make you a key for my place tho???? Why didn’t I think of that before? Looks like when I come over to your place on friday, because I’m still being respectful, and friday is a decent time for me to come visit all of you, I’m def handing each of you a spare key to my place, except for Matt. He’d show up at three in the morning and light a firework off or something and I don’t really think that’s something Hunk can handle. 

I guess text me if friday doesn’t actually work for you guys though. I really don’t want to intrude. I just like having friends.

So really, this was just a long way for me to ask you if you’ll still write me letters occasionally so neither of us ever have to feel awkward if there’s something we want to say but don’t want to say out loud? If you don’t want to, I won’t be upset. I mean, we do live less than ten minutes away from each other so it’s kinda pointless, but I want to, y’know. Idk

Lance

  
  


**August 29 6:16 P.M.**

**Keith:** I have tomorrow off can i meet you during your break?

**Lance:** yes! I’ll be in the library

**Lance:** so….

**Keith:** i think its a good idea

**Lance:** yay! :) 


	2. 1

Keith walked into the library holding a cup of coffee that was far sweeter than he thought a coffee should ever be, but he knew Lance liked sweet and caffeine, and he’d had another eight A.M. class that morning. It took a minute, but he found Lance sitting at a table in the corner, head resting on his palm half asleep with a textbook open in front of him. They hadn’t seen each other since May because Shiro didn’t want anyone to be distracted while adjusting to their new environments, and Keith suspected it was probably more for Matt’s sake as a lab professor than for anyone else. 

“Lance?” 

He sat up quickly, knocking an open highlighter to the floor, “I completely forgot you were coming! Is that for me?” He handed him the coffee and sat across from him at the table, “You’re the best!” 

“It’s just coffee.”   


“And I’m dying here! Why do I need a finance course for my science degree, and why was the only option an 8 A.M? I’m literally just paying for an expensive nap.” he whined. “But it’s fine.”

“Is it?” He raised an eyebrow.

“They already took my money. It has to be.” He grinned, placing his cup on the table and stretching his arms back behind him. “So, what’s up, or did you just miss my pretty face?” 

“Who wouldn’t miss a face as pretty as yours?” Lance blushed, shocked that Keith would ever actually agree, “But I did want to talk to you about something.”

Keith tried to get everything he’d rehearsed in the car on the way there into some kind of coherent order before he made a mess of everything. It was just that he wasn’t that great with words, and he thought that now that they were as close as they were maybe they could actually see if dating was a thing they wanted to do, but he was nowhere near as bold in real life as he was in his letters. 

“I just, well, in your letter you said that you didn’t know what we w--” 

“Hey guys!” Hunk exclaimed, cutting him off on accident. “Can I sit with you?” 

Lance pushed the chair next to Keith back with his foot, “Of course! Keef was just about to tell me something.”    


“It doesn’t matter.” He waved it off. 

“Yes it does. What is it?” he watched him expectantly, shutting his textbook. 

Opening and closing his mouth, he said, “Uh, Matt told me to tell you that he wants you to bring your Mario Kart game over tomorrow night because you owe him a rematch or something.” 

Frowning, he nodded, “Okay, but let him know that there’s no way he’s gonna beat me, and especially not if he keeps choosing Toadette.” 

“Really? I thought he was more of a Waluigi kind of guy.” Keith said.

“No, that’s Lance.” Hunk laughed. “Matt’s holding a game night?” 

“It’s tomorrow. You can come if you want.” Keith said, “I’m pretty sure Pidge is gonna be there. She’s been there almost every night since she got here. Her dorm-mate said she’s like some kind of cryptid.”    


“Pidge’s allowed to come over, but I’m not? After all we’ve been through, Shiro would betray me like that?” 

“You’re gonna have to take it up with him. I tried.” 

“I would come, but Shay and I have plans that night.” Hunk said.    


“Ooh!” Lance wiggled his eyebrows, “Hot date?” 

“Yeah, and as much as I think it’d be fun to end our date with you guys, I think it’s a little soon to admit to her that our physics lab instructor is someone I choose to hang out with.” 

“Matt’ll only tease you a little bit in class.” 

“Still not something I’m ready to deal with. We’ve barely started classes as it is. Speaking of, are you ready for stats?” Hunk checked the time on his phone, 

“Because we’ve got ten minutes.” 

“No.” Lance pouted. “But I guess if we don’t want anyone taking our seats we should probably head to class.”

Keith looked down at the table, “Well, it was good to see you, even if it was for just a few minutes.” 

“Thanks for the coffee!” He replied, grabbing all of his supplies from the table top, shoving them into his backpack.

**August 30 3:23 P.M.**

**Lance:** totally don’t wanna overstep my boundaries but were you gonna say something else earlier?

**Keith:** just passing the message along

**Lance:** oh okay what time can i come over tomorrow?

**Keith:** 6ish?

**Keith:** honestly whenever bc shiro’s off. I just work until 5:30

**August 30 7:26 P.M**

**Lance:** you really didn’t?

**Keith:** huh?

**Lance:** actually its okay

**Lance:** nevermind

**Keith:** you sure?

**Lance:** yeah

Lance knocked on the front door at five o’clock, nervously tapping his fingers against the metal stair railing on their porch. It wasn’t that he was nervous about being at the house, because honestly, if he hadn’t had class he would’ve shown up much earlier. There was something about this little family that felt so strangely comfortable even though he’d only really met them a handful of times. He knew there was something Keith wanted to talk about, and he’d been kicking himself ever since he let Hunk interrupt them the other day, but he didn’t know how to go about getting it out of him. 

Shiro opened the door and stood back to let him in, “You’re early.” he said. 

“Keith said I could be, unless you don’t want me to be here yet, and I can just…” 

“No.” He laughed, “You’re fine.” 

He followed Shiro into the kitchen and sat across the table from him, “So why did Pidge get to come over but I didn’t?” 

“Are you a Holt?” 

“I’m about as brother you never knew you wanted as it gets, Shiro. If I’m not an honorary Holt, then I’m going to be hurt.” 

“Alright,” He smiled. “I suppose you can come over whenever you want, but only if you can get Hunk to make more cookies.” 

“Deal!” 

Keith walked into the house and immediately pulled the pony tail out of his hair the second he realized that Lance was there too, embarrassed by the hairstyle. It worked for the garage because longer hair got in the way, but it tended to get messy from the work, and he thought he was going to have more time before Lance got there to clean up. 

“Hey.”

“I thought you said five thirty.” Shiro said. 

“Must’ve read the schedule wrong.” He said, “I’m gonna go change.” He pointed towards the stairs with his thumb.

He dug in his closet for something that looked more presentable than the oil covered work shirt he’d been wearing, and he wanted to look nice, but not enough that Shiro or Matt would say anything to embarrass him any more than he knew they would. Judging by the laughing he could hear from downstairs, he was fairly certain Shiro already started. It’s not like it’s a double date with Pidge tagging along or anything. Just a bunch of friends hanging out. Yet, he wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. Lance made him more comfortable than anyone he knew, besides maybe Shiro. 

When he got back downstairs, Matt had shown up with pizzas and Pidge, who was already setting up Mario Kart on their television. 

“Loser has to buy the pizza next time.” Matt said. “I’m feeling lucky tonight.”    


“You’ve felt lucky for the last three years, and you’ve lost every single time.” Pidge said. “You’re not going to break your streak.” 

“Not with that attitude.” 

Keith sat the farthest away on the couch, content to let everyone else have a turn before he took a controller. It’d been a long time since he’d played the game, and their copy of the game had gotten lost in the move up there. 

Lance sat next to him, “Where’s Red?”    


“Hiding under my bed. I can go get her for you.”    


“No. I just hadn’t seen her yet.” They sat in an awkward silence, “How was work?”

“Long.” He said. “How was school.”    


“Boring.” he looked around for something else to say, “I should’ve come at six. I’m sorry.”    


“No.” He said quickly, “I said you could come early.” 

“Yeah.” He bit his lip.

“Do you want something to drink?” Lance nodded. “I’ll be right back.” 

Walking back from the kitchen he watched Pidge hand Lance a controller and take his spot on the couch. He was mentally kicking himself for making things weird. It was easy to talk to Lance over facetime or through the letters. They’d spent a whole week together before, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t talk or that he found him boring, but there hadn’t been any pressure for the two of them to be together then, and he really didn’t want to screw anything up. 

Placing Lance’s cup on the coffee table, he sat on the floor on the other side of the room. 

After a couple games, Shiro pulled Keith into the kitchen with the guise that he needed help cleaning the kitchen up.

“You haven’t hardly said anything to him.” He said as they watched Lance beat Matt and Pidge at the second game of their match.

“I tried.” Keith exclaimed a blush covering his cheeks. He looked away, closing the empty pizza box. 

“Is there a problem? I thought you were going to ask him out.” he said placing their dirty dishes into the sink.

“I was going to, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship.”    


“He showed up an hour early. You couldn’t ruin that friendship if you tried. Just ask him. It’s not that hard.” 

“It is when I want to make it special! I have no idea what to do!” 

Shiro watched his own boyfriend try to push Pidge off the couch because he was losing so badly, “I don’t know if it’s any good anymore, I haven’t been there since I went with Adam, but they’re playing a couple movies down at that old drive-in this weekend. I’ll let you borrow my truck.”

“That’s the second best idea you’ve ever had.” He replied.

“Oh? What’s the first?”    


“If I tell you you’ll hold it over me for the rest of my life, and I’m not giving you that satisfaction.” He stuck his tongue out and went back into the living room. 

He waited for the new match to end before taking the controller from Matt, who lost again. 

They played until Matt’s whining and Lance’s winning started to get old and Shiro decided ten o’clock was late enough for company. 

“I promise I’m not a buzzkill, but at least two of us work tomorrow morning, and fortunately, the drunk drivers are still at the bars, so no one should get hurt going home.” 

“No, you definitely are a buzzkill.” Matt said tossing a handful of popcorn at him. “And you could sound less like a grandpa.”

“I’ve got homework anyway.” Lance stood up. Keith followed him to the front door. “Thanks for letting me come over.” he said. He reached into his pocket, “I almost forgot!” He handed him a key, “I said I was gonna get you a spare key to our place. My gift to you, that has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of times I got locked out of my dorm last year.” 

“I’m not surprised.” He smiled, “But thanks, I’ll keep it safe.” 

“It sucks you have to work early tomorrow.”

He shrugged, “I’ve gone to work on less sleep. Maybe if Shiro would stop pretending like he’s responsible for once and remember everyone here is an adult.” 

“Well,” He opened the door, “I’ll text you, or you can text me, about literally anything, even if you don’t think I want to hear about it, I definitely do.” 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Nothing,” He blushed and kissed Keith’s cheek, “Goodnight.” 

_ september 1 _

_ lancey,  _

_ i hate that you can read me like a book. i also hate that its almost three in the morning, and i cant sleep. you definitely could have stayed later. learn to ignore shiro like the rest of us. hopefully i dont oversleep or forget about this in the morning on the way to work because it would be a waste if i waited any longer since it is technically saturday and such late notice that its actually unacceptable. _

_ so i dont know why i didnt want to ask you this. probably it has something to do with you being my first real friend in a long time and i dont want to jeopardize that. i think were on the same page about this though and shiro gave me this idea, i think hed want credit especially since he said hed let me use his truck, but remember how i said there was a drive in outside of town that shows movies like once a month? well theyre showing some tonight. i didnt check to see what they are so they could be bad movies, but i was wondering if you wanted to go with me. it could be as friends only, but i… dont want it to be. wow i suck at this even when im writing it out.  _

_ if you arent busy tonight with something, do you want to go with me to the drive in as a date? theres no curfew this time. _

_ i feel like i shouldve put those boxes that say yes or no and you could check one and leave it on my doorstep. _

_ i wish i couldve had the nerve to do this last night in person. it feels wrong to ask you like this, but i was gonna ask you out in person and then hunk showed up and i got nervous. i wanted this to be special i guess. its not. im sorry. _

_ -keith  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Neither me nor this story is thriving, however, for both cases, things will get better
> 
> If you've read this far thank you for still reading this story. I appreciate you so so much. 
> 
> Life is lonely and being lonely sucks. If you ever need a friend, or a stranger, I am always ready to talk, here or on my Tumblr: yikessbuddy. I hope you all are well.
> 
> :)

**Author's Note:**

> So I have a dilemma because I have a plot for this, but if you've read the first story then you know I haven't used third-person. I don't want to lose the essence of this story, but also I'm interested in using third person. I guess I'm just not sure if doing that is going to ruin anything... help :(
> 
> Thank you :)


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